Staying Away from Worldly Desires in Imam Ali’s View
In a series of sessions recently held, sociologist and religious researcher Emad Afroogh, who passed away earlier this month, tried to introduce the thoughts of Imam Ali (AS).
In the 25th session, he talked about Imam Ali’s (AS) views in Nahj al-Balagha on the need to avoid worldliness and following worldly desires. Here is a summary of his remarks:
In the follow-up to our previous discussion of the world in view of Imam Ali (AS), I would like to point to Sermon 145 and Letter 68 in Nahj al-Balagha.
Imam (AS) says (in Sermon 145): “O people, you are, in this world, the target for the arrows of death. With every drinking there is choking and with every eating there is suffocation. You do not get any benefit in it except by foregoing another (benefit) and no one among you advances in age by a day except by the taking away of a day from his life. Nothing more is added to his eating unless it reduces what was there before. No mark appears for him unless a mark disappears. Nothing new comes into being unless the new becomes old. No new crop comes up unless a crop has been reaped. Those roots are gone whose off-shoots we are. How can an off-shoot live after the departure of its root? No innovation is introduced unless one Sunnah (tradition) is forsaken. Keep away from innovations and stick to the broad road. Surely the old tested ways are the best and the innovated ones are bad.”
Also, in Letter 68, addressed to Salman al-Farsi, Imam Ali (AS) says: “Now, the example of the world is like that of a snake which is soft in touch but whose poison is fatal. Therefore, keep yourself aloof from whatever appears good to you because of its short stay with you. Do not worry for it because of your conviction that it will leave you and that its circumstances are vicissitudes. When you feel most attracted towards it, shun it most, because whenever someone is assured of happiness in it, it throws him into danger; or when he feels secure in it, the world alters his security into fear; and that is an end to the matter.”
